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Monday, October 10, 2011

Moving Day

What a weekend! On Friday I told the story of moving into my new place. Well, it isn't so much to move in to the new place, but it's a whole different story actually moving the stuff over.

Friday night my friend from Vancouver, Rob, landed and I picked him up. The next day we went to my old place and started an activity that I estimated would take a couple hours. This activity was packing up ALL of my stuff and moving it to the new place. A UHaul was was rented and then the game of boxing began. A television, bed, cabinets, and boxes I did not know I had were all things that had to be packed. Truly, these boxes had not been opened since my most recent move of June of 2003.

This task would have been impossible without Rob as truly the amount of stuff was mind boggling and the extra man power helped out immensely.

So, I thought it would have taken a couple hours... turns out we unloaded the UHaul at the new place almost 8 hours from the point that we began.

Well, it isn't so much to get stuff unloaded, but then it has to be unpacked. This lasted for another four hours and I went through the stuff that was packed from my room eight years ago. I found a lot of stuff that I had been looking for years for, but I also found a lot of stuff that evoked memories that were long dealt with. Right now I can't think of an individual item, and there were too many to mention, but it was like being taken back eight years.

I opened box after box and I made a choice. A new place, as my dad said on Thursday, was a step for a new stage of my life. I had to move on, and with that choice made I began the "chucking" process. I went into express mode and relived the memories, but unless something had significant value I simply "chucked" the item, whether it was a book or small toy from 1986, into a trash box.

Rob was watching this, and I think he somehow was enjoying watching this process, and told me that he was, "amazed" that I was doing this. He's read my book, or at least a part of it, and my blog, or at least some of it, and he knows how good my memory is and what small things represent as I talk about it often. That being so, he stated that he was impressed.

On Sunday my dad came to pick up the items I were purging from my life and I could tell he was impressed to. Also, I showed him the way I laid out my television and other rooms and it was odd saying that this new place, "is home".

I'm sure this isn't the last blog post on this as there are so many elements of living on one's own that I haven't dealt with yet. I am going to have to learn how to cook things (any advice on easy stuff?), clean, and just overall keeping the place without making it look like a hurricane blew through.

Also, today, please help me out on the Monsanto Grow Saint Louis contest that is going on. All you've got to do is vote, click here to do so and you can vote 100 times a day per e-mail address. There's no reason why we can't get into the top 3 and those founds will help further autism understanding and awareness. Thanks for voting in advance!

1 comment:

A while ago I posted a comment with my easy tortellini recipe. I thought it was the first blog post in which you told us you were getting a place of your own.In short it's:- Tortellini- Pasta sauce- Ham blocks

If you want to know how to make it, look up that comment or simply ask in a comment or mail. :)

I asked my mum for easy recipes. She suggested spaghetti bolognese, lasagna and mac 'n cheese. (funny how we both get to pasta recipes :P)

Also, my mum congratulates you with moving into your new home :) Also, she tells me I should throw stuff out too...

Who I Am

Hello, my name is Aaron Likens and thanks for visiting my blog. I am the Autism Ambassador for Easter Seals Midwest and also the author of the book "Finding Kansas. My passion in life is to raise the awareness and understanding of the autism spectrum through this blog as well as the many presentations I give. For myself, as much as it is a passion, it is personal because I was given the diagnosis of Asperger's when I was 20. Back then there wasn't much info and I fell into a pit of despair. I stayed there for 15 months but then I eventually discovered myself through writing and now here I am and here you are on my blog. There are well over 1,000 posts on this blog as I started blogging in March of 2010. So whether you're reading today's blog, or are skimming through stories of the past, I hope that your time here gives you a better glimps of what living life on the autism spectrum, or, "other side of the wall" is like. If you do like what you see please follow me on Facebook as that's where I share when I've written a new blog as well as announcing where I will be presenting. Please note that the opinions expressed on this blog are mine and may not be reflective of Easter Seals Midwest.

The Sunglasses Experiment

I ran a sunglasses experiment to judge why eye contact is so difficult. I wore them for about 15 days, then I switched back to my normal glasses to see how big of a difference there was. By clicking my picture you can be taken to the page that has the complete experiement all in one place.

About Me

I am the Autism Ambassador for Easter Seals Midwest and also the author of Finding Kansas: Living and Decoding Asperger's Syndrome. My passion in life is raising awareness of Autism Spectrum Disorders and to help the world understand how the mind of a person on the spectrum works. I can do this because I am on the spectrum (Asperger's).
I was diagnosed at the age of 20 and after the diagnosis a lot of my quirks made sense. I didn't understand who I was though and went into a deep depression. Through this depression though I became very keen on my inner self and I started to write. I wrote and I wrote and before I knew it I wrote a book.
5 years later I am, among other things, giving presentations to police, teachers, and parents and am now starting my quest on making the best blog possible!
The views on this blog are mine and may not be reflective of Touch Point Autism Services.
If you have any questions, or comments, or have an article idea please email me at aaron.likens@yahoo.com.